Citing safety, lawmakers seal previously open records

Bills give public the right to know a little lessLawmakers seal previously open records, citing safety fears

POLLY ROSS HUGHES, Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

Published 5:30 am, Tuesday, June 5, 2007

AUSTIN — Texas lawmakers dealt open government advocates major defeats this spring, shuttering government records long open to the public. About 400 bills were filed affecting the public's right to know.

Among the trend limiting access were bills that seal the identities of concealed handgun owners, limit disclosure of home addresses for attorneys and judges, hike charges for records requests and restrict contents of search warrant affidavits.

Open government bills also passed. They require hospitals to publicly report infection rates and lawmakers to accurately report the value of gifts or cash. Voters can also decide in November whether final passage of state legislation must include record votes.

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Lawmakers who sought limits on open government during the legislative session just ended cited private safety concerns and the need for police or school districts to do their jobs more efficiently.

Government watchdog groups, however, called the trend to deny access to government records alarming.

"I think it's a greater danger to close them," said Ken Whalen of the Texas Daily Newspaper Association. "A lot of it's being fueled by privacy concerns, identity theft concerns. But the way the Texas system works, the (public information law) states that all records are presumed to be open unless there's a compelling reason to close them."

For the first time since the 1995 passage of Texas' concealed handgun license law, the identity of more than 258,000 current permit holders are now sealed by law. House Bill 991 went into immediate effect with Gov. Rick Perry's signature in May.

"I believe the extraordinary steps law-abiding citizens take to protect themselves and their families ought to be a private concern," said Rep. Patrick Rose, D-Dripping Springs, lead author of the new law.

NRA supports move

The gun lobby, including the
National Rifle Association
, favored the measure as a protection of those exercising a constitutional right. News media groups say the public has a right to know whom its government licenses to carry guns.

"This has nothing to do with whether you can carry a concealed weapon, but we need as citizens to know whether authorities are granting handgun licenses to the right people," he added.

The Texas Department of Public Safety, in repeated surveys, has found that not all concealed handgun license holders are law-abiding citizens. In a 1999 study, it found 135 license holders had been convicted of felonies.

A bill on the governor's desk would allow judges to seal search warrant affidavits for up to 60 days.

"That's just a horrible idea," said White, noting the Freedom of Information Foundation requested public information identifying a single case in which the public affidavits hurt a criminal case.

"They could not do it. Search warrant affidavits have been public since Texas has been a republic," White said. "That's important because you need to know what's going on on your street. You need to know what's going on in general with the people who can bust into a home, take DNA samples, hair samples, blood samples."

Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, counters that Texas is "out of step" with other states in the nation in the handling of search warrants.

"Under current law, the affidavit is public record," he said. "If the press picks up on it, information is likely to be published. It could endanger a confidential informant. It could cause evidence to be destroyed."

Charges for records

Another public information law on Perry's desk stems from voluminous record requests by parents of two Central Texas school districts.

It allows any government agency to charge for staff time that exceeds 36 hours, but it exempts news reporters from the extra charges.

"Some of the biggest scandals in Texas history have been developed because of citizens deciding to do records searches," said Tom "Smitty" Smith, director of the Texas arm of Public Citizen, the consumer advocacy group founded by Ralph Nader.